"I'd Die For You"
'I'd Die For You' It's Monday and a portent of bad luck, when Deke's first visitor of the day is a woman. It turns out it's his friend Suzie Anderson who was one of the "special" children who escaped with Deke. The two made arrangements to eat breakfast at the Decatur street location of Café Du Monde, where Suzie paid for them to enjoy several beignets and some hot coffee while they chatted. Suzie confirmed she has finally finished her move from New York to New Orleans. She’s found a dream job at a new burlesque theater paying her well enough to have a new wardrobe, a new haircut and pay for breakfast. Suddenly, Suzie's right hand started to stab her left one- nicking an artery! Blood spurted out of her right onto the sugary treats. Deke masterfully manages to control the bleeding and knock the knife from Suzie’s hand. After the ambulance arrives to take Suzie to St. Katherine's hospital, Deke does a search of the area but doesn't find anything mystical. A mysterious figure creeps up to him and attempts to grapple him several times but Deke evades him out on Decatur Street. The figure reveals himself to be Rupert Giles and has a colleague named Gregory Robson who he says is the more fabulous of the Robson brothers. The watcher shows Deke a newspaper article of a woman who’s been found with her feet cut off. She had on her stomach, a tattoo with the same voodoo ritual symbol made in cornmeal next ter body. The same symbol appears in a mysterious book that Robson calls “The Aklat.” Giles get a call on his cell phone and leaves Robson with Deke. Robson tells Deke they have found other news articles about similar killings through an algorithmic search created by “that red-headed girl who’s friends with the Slayer.” The image of a shadowy figure rising in voodoo ritual then disappears and renders a picture of Suzie recovering in the hospital. Deke decides to head to the hospital, and Robson says he’ll be off to do some voodoo research, leaving behind the mysterious book. Deke craftily pockets the book and heads to the hospital. When he arrives at the hospital, he meets a nurse with a purple streak in her hair that he learns is named Betty.She leads him to a recovering Suzie who says she can’t remember what happened. She’s more worried about her recovery, because she can’t seem to start fires in her left hand. The doctors and nurses come in to give Suzie some fluids as well as to do some other tests. While waiting for the tests to finish, Deke notices there’s a woman in the corner of the waiting room reading a book. Using The Aklat, he asks the book to reveal any clues to him and the book reveals an image of the woman in the corner. He looks closer at the drawing and notices the title of the book is “Cadaver Dissection.” As he tries to approach the woman, he notices she has a badge: her name is Anne Carter and she’s the assistant mortician. She bursts into the tears as Deke approaches her. The Head Mortician, Bob Dobb tells Anne she needs to fill out paperwork. Deke also learns that Anne’s fiancé Elli recently died and Betty tells him it was because of a car accident. Betty tells him to leave Anne alone. After a visit from the doctor, Suzie tells Deke that all she did that was different that day was get her haircut and visit with her artist friend Daisy Jackson. Deke jokes with her and tells her to feel better before Betty ushers him out of the hospital. Deke places a call to his friend Officer Alex Dingleman, who works in the police records department. Alex tells Deke he’s concerned because the woman in the case Giles mentioned had signs of “real voodoo” committed upon her. Deke also discovers Elli did not die in a car accident as Betty said, but the records say he committed suicide. They also state that head mortician Bob Dobb found the body and did the autopsy. Before he can find out more information, he is stopped by Head Chief of Police Adam Warren who tells him to stay away from the case. Attempting to reach out to his voodoo associates, Deke calls Bobby who uncharacteristically does not answer on the first ring. Concerned, Deke travels out past the French Quarter into the rougher area of New Orleans to Bobby’s apartment. In his place, he notices there are several books jumbled- including five related to voodoo rituals. Bobby is dead at the scene, killed just a few hours earlier with the same voodoo tattoo on his stomach and a cornmeal drawing of the symbol. Hearing footsteps approach, Deke cleverly hides himself in the bathroom. He takes a cell phone picture of six police officers and senses five of them are possessed by magic. The sixth is not only possessed but surrounded by terrible power and it’s the Head Chief of Police Adam Warren! Carefully making his way out of the projects and back to Bourbon street, Deke attempts to contact the rest of his voodoo practioner friends. His other friend, “Bloody Maurie” or Martha Langston, has also been killed. Her head is missing, but luckily Officer “Pokadot” is on the scene and agrees to fill Deke in on the details in the morning. Deke meets up with Shaman Reginald the III who is making a retreat out of town, knowing he didn’t want to be around with Mariumn coming. His friend, a rookie cop, improperly summoned Marium several years ago and needed a live host to remain in the plane. Deke learns from Reginald that most voodoo casters have the five books necessary to summon a voodoo god, but lack the sixth. The last book, entitled “Loa,” is rare but provides the secrets to how to complete the ritual. Reignald knows there’s at least one copy in the city, the one he loaned to his budding student who was a rookie cop. He thinks the tome is probably sitting in the evidence locker at the police department. That student improperly invoked the voodoo goddess Mariumn to assist in a convenience store robbery/hostage crisis. When the gunmen shot himself and the student, only the student’s rookie partner survived to take on the host… Adam Warren! Armed with information, a new I Love New Orleans fleur-de-lis shirt and freshly obtained cornmeal, Deke tries to look for the rest of his voodoo contacts. But the remaining three he knows have vanished without a trace. Rather than trying to break into the police evidence locker where he knows one copy of “Loa” exists, he decides to go in search of Gregory Robson. Backtracking back to the bar where they parted ways, Deke looks for the library using old-fashioned detective skills and the process of elimination. After ruling out all of the other vendors on St. Ann street, he concludes that a non-descript tarot card shop must be where the supernatural research library is hidden. With some monetary persuasion, the tarot shop cashier pushes a button to reveal a dark passageway. At the end of the corridor, Deke finds Gregory hitting the books. The two locate the rare copy of “Loa” written in both English and some mystical arcane language. Deke confirms the details of what Shaman Reginald the III told him and learned new facts about the voodoo goddess. Mariumn is the patron goddess of the werewolves and in her original form was bathed in fire. Deke learns how to banish the goddess from their host, by having a caster summon the goddess and ensuring there are no living bodies for the goddess to possess. After scaring Gregory by pretending to be a vampire, Deke heads back to his place for some shuteye. Walking through the drunken crowds, he asks “The Aklat” for any last clues that can help him. The “picture prophecy book” reveals a detailed drawing of an unknown woman, surrounded by several large wolves.